Saturday, August 22nd, 2009 at
3:48 pm
Consider this post to be a rant if you like. I’ve noticed lately that a lot of my music students have switched off their thinking caps, preferring to have information spoon-fed to them. Quite frankly I dislike doing this, unless they are incapable of understanding what I teach. I find this problem more pressing with older children; younger children tend to be more inquisitive and ask questions. The older a child gets, the quieter they become (at least it seems that way to me).
I think part of the blame lies with the dreadful education system we have in this country, where school children tend to be spoon-fed mostly everything, and there is very little room for motivating them to think, question, argue, etc. I find this spilling out when I teach music theory especially. They remain very passive, occasionally giving me a slight nod of their heads (just to prove they are still awake) and hardly ever ask questions. I’ve always told them (especially more advanced students from Grade 6 and above) to arm themselves with a notebook to take down notes when I’m talking (because if it’s not important, why am I bothering to say it to you?) Most of them reluctantly do it, more to please me than to benefit themselves. If they had their way, they’d rather just sit there and listen to me yak as if I were just telling them fairy tales.
I see this when they do their music theory assignments. They think for as little as they can, and then come up with an answer. That’s it, they won’t ask themselves something like, “OK, I’ve said the answer is this. Do the other factors in the question make this answer to be correct?” I’ve told them over and over to do this, but it just falls on deaf ears. Moreover, when I nag them to check, they perceive this to be another chore. And then they wonder what went wrong when the music theory exam results arrive.
Albert Einstein said, “Small is the number of people who see with their eyes and think with their minds.” Here’s another great one from him: “I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.”
To my students—God has endowed each and every one of us with a wonderful organ called the brain. Use it, and use it wisely and profusely!
Tags:
brain,
exams,
music theory,
students,
thinking
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Thursday, August 20th, 2009 at
12:25 pm
Today was appointment day with my ophthalmologist. He checked my left eye and confirmed what I had thought for the past few days—the redness had diminished somewhat. However, he was puzzled as to why it had not cleared up completely, after all it had been 3 weeks since my surgery. He laid out some possible factors for me:
- An allergy to one of the meds
- A blocked blood vessel or two in the white of my eye
- Environmental factors such as the hazy weather we’ve been having recently
The second one was the most troubling. As a consequence he changed my eye meds again, this time no more steroid stuff. I have to report back to him in a fortnight’s time, and hopefully all the redness will disappear soon. I’m getting sick and frustrated with it!
Tags:
cataracts,
eye drops,
surgery
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Monday, August 17th, 2009 at
11:36 pm
Ah, a little bird tells me some parents thought that the judges were “harsh” and “brutal” in their comments. Since I’m one of the judges, I thought I’d let parents and contestants air their views here in my blog. If you’d like to remain anonymous, just let me know when you comment and I’ll make it so.
So please start typing and let me know your views—thank you.
Tags:
piano idol
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Sunday, August 16th, 2009 at
9:49 pm
Seems like just a short time ago that I was asked by Mr. and Mrs. Fong to judge the local Piano Idol competition last year. Now it’s Season 2 time, and I was at the local Yamaha venue together with my fellow judges, Razif and Leonard. This year’s Piano Idol had fewer participants compared with last year’s, but this works in their favor doesn’t it. It lasted for about 3 hours and as usual was divided up into Junior, Senior, and Freestyle Group categories. Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Fong who kept us supplied with coffee, cheese cake, and mineral water.
Unfortunately I have to get one criticism out of the way first. Regrettably, many of the contestants were let down by poor song choices. It’s so important to remember that this is a competition, and not a recital or concert. And oh dear here comes Richard Clayderman again! As I’ve said before I have nothing against the man or his songs, but they are more for easy listening and not for competitions such as this one.
The standouts were again contestants who chose to play classical repertoire. Adriana Chiew gave a very professional and poised performance of the Brahms A major Intermezzo op. 118, while Benjamin Pau gave his version of Chopin’s Fantaisie Impromptu, which, although had some blemishes, did display some maturing talent in his playing. Jason Ong (a participant from last year) played his own arrangement of his favorite videogame, titled Bloody Tears. Not only that, he provided the judges with a short verbal and written description of the storyline.
The Freestyle Group category had students who played in ensembles. This year what impressed me most were those students who chose to perform piano duets (other groups featured the Yamaha Stagea organs and Clavinovas) Although they were quite young, the students who performed piano duets displayed a very good sense of accuracy and synchronization with each other. I’m also not too keen (but this is my personal opinion) of ensembles where some parts were already pre-recorded onto thumb drives and then inserted into the Stagea organs. When I judge ensembles I like to see and hear as much LIVE playing as possible.
The Finals will be on September 13 at the Copthorne Orchid Hotel here. I’ll look forward to that—it’s always nice to see students giving so much time and energy to an event such as this. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to pick the right song. Read my post here to get more useful advice. Good luck, contestants!
Tags:
piano,
piano idol
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Friday, August 14th, 2009 at
6:39 pm
Those of you who have been following my ramblings so far would know that I had my second cataract operation on my left eye two weeks ago. While it has made a good recovery and my vision has improved, the downer was that a stubborn redness persisted in my eye (read my Second Sight posts) That has consequently dampened my mood and spirits for the past fortnight, so much so that I didn’t really feel like blogging at all.
I was told by the ophthalmologist to take this weekend off from playing at the hotel, so I decided to update my blog, lest my readers desert me (I hope not!) The redness in my left eye clung to me like a dark storm cloud over my head, and I realized I had to snap out of it—after all I was following the doc’s orders with the eye meds, etc. It was just a matter of time for it to heal, and I must learn to be patient.
Anyways, there are so many things I am thankful for, here they are in no particular order:
- The enormous improvement in my vision after the two surgeries. Even though I have to wear reading glasses now, it sure beats wearing the old thick glasses.
- The warmth, support, caring, and prayers of my friends (you know who you are) have helped me immensely throughout these past weeks—friends are definitely the best! Oh, and thank you, Windows Live Messenger.
- My morning and evening walks, something that I not only do for exercise but also a time where I can be by myself, gazing at God’s creation as I walk (lovely), and oftentimes listening to music or a dear friend’s audio book in my MP3 player.
- I have to smile with this one—I’ve gone back to consuming yogurt. Amazing, because when I tried that years back, the #2’s just kept coming. Not this time though. Yogurt is simply delicious! And my other vice aka coffee—mmmhmmm, one cup in the morning and another in the afternoon, now that’s pure bliss.
- I’ve also gone back to reading—I like more action stuff, but Same Kind of Different is great too, Crystal! At the moment I’m reading a short novel by Clive Cussler called Treasure of Khan. I’ve also been reading Richard Carlson’s excellent Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff (and it’s all small stuff), it’s a wonderful book.
- Many of you know I’m thin as a toothpick, but I still enjoy my food (and I do eat like a pig), even the leftovers. Once in a while I give myself a small treat when I’m out, nothing too expensive. But it makes me feel good!
- Last but not least—I’m going to be 49 next month—woot! And by golly I’m going to treat myself to a nice birthday present, hee hee, wink wink. Suffice to say that I’m thinking of getting myself back to a hobby I loved way back about two decades ago—photography. Just checking with my bank manager before I “splurge,” we shall see.
- Whoops, this is the absolute last—I never forget to thank God first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Gratitude works miracles for the soul.
Tags:
cataracts,
eye,
friends
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Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 at
5:21 pm
This morning I went to see my ophthalmologist again. I was originally scheduled for an appointment later on Thursday, but at a friend’s insistence (you know who you are, L) I went. So the doc checks my left eye and proclaims that it’s healing well, but he was puzzled by the persistent redness. Upon a more thorough checkup he found that my eyelids were secreting a lot of oils and crud and icky stuff…you could say I have a dirty eye, LOL. So I was ordered to clean my eye more often with sterile cotton balls. Yeah, how exciting, but I have to do it.
He changed and added to some of my meds. I’m now using these eye drops: Ciloxan, TobraDex, and Naphcon A. To me they sound more like biochemical weapons than eye drops, but I’m nuts. Anyways, sticking to doctor’s orders and one final checkup a week from now. If the redness doesn’t clear up, he’s going to inject an antibiotic directly into my eye—ugh, icky poo!
I hope it doesn’t come to that (shudders) so for now I’m keeping a very close watch on my left eye. Stay tuned.
Tags:
eye,
eye drops,
ophthalmologist
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Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at
11:21 am
This morning I went for a post-op checkup at the hospital. The ophthalmologist took a look at my recently-operated left eye and confirmed what I had suspected all week—there was inflammation. I was told to increase my eye-drop usage from 4 times a day to 6 times, and will have to pay him another visit a week from now. It doesn’t help much with keeping my spirits up, but these things happen and I did practice good hygiene the past week. Hopefully this inflammation will clear up soon, otherwise I might need to have an antibiotic injection on the next visit.
Nevertheless, one has to look on the bright side too. It’s so nice to wake up in the morning, go over to the window, and peer clearly outside at the foliage, without wearing any glasses. It’s incredible that I couldn’t do this for the last 35 years or so…thank God I opted for the surgery.
That’s all the news I have for the time being. Tomorrow I resume work at the hotel (I must remember to bring my reading glasses along, heh)
Tags:
cataracts,
eye,
ophthalmologist,
reading glasses,
surgery
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